Dianna Dean Welch || Obituary

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Dianna Lynn Dean was born June 9, 1955, in Searcy, Arkansas to Bro. Herbert Prentice and Barbara Cooper Dean.  The family moved to Paris in 1965 for Bro. Dean to serve as the minister in Paris area churches.  Dianna attended East Paris Elementary School, Crockett Junior High School, and graduated from Paris High School in 1973.  While attending Paris Junior College, she excelled in music and performed in the Madrigal Singers under the direction of Charles Stephens.  Dianna had a soothing mellow alto voice and singing was a major part of her life.

Dianna married her high school sweetheart, Mark Edward Welch on July 5, 1975, at First Christian Church.  Mark and Dianna have been faithful members of Lamar Avenue Church of Christ since 1976 where Dianna served as a founding director of the church’s Latch Key After School Program that continues today.  She began her career in banking at American National Bank in Shawnee, Oklahoma and moved back to Paris in 1976 and worked as a teller at the First National Bank and retired from First Federal Community Bank as the receptionist.   Above all of her accomplishments which included being an accomplished seamstress and talented singer, Dianna loved her Lord and her family with all of her heart.  Her voice will be long remembered.

Dianna was known in the Paris area as the “bathtub lady” having been almost killed in the Paris tornado of 1982 when she flew in her bathtub sheltering her two small children from the storm.  They all three survived that terrible ordeal.

In 1991 she moved to Stephenville with her family to become a houseparent at Foster’s Childrens Home.  There she made positive impacts on several young girls’ lives.  She to this day, had contact with these now young ladies with families of their own.

Dianna was preceded in death by her father, Herbert Dean; all four grandparents; two cousins; and numerous extended family members.  She is survived by her husband of 48 years, Mark; her mother, Barbara Dean; her daughter, Lindsay Welch McCarter and husband, Michael; a son, Ryan Welch and wife, Lacey; four granddaughters, Kaitlyn McCarter Poole and husband, Cody, Aubrie McCarter, Emma McCarter, and Davie Kay Welch; one grandson, Ridley Welch; one great-grandson, Kade Wyatt Poole;  two brothers, Prent Dean and wife, Trudi and Jon Dean and wife, Trinia; a sister-in-law, Diane Welch McFadden; a brother-in-law, Tom Welch; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, and uncles.

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